A pressure control valve is provided with a valve main body (10) having a valve chamber (15) with a valve seat portion (14), a refrigerant inflow port (11) and a refrigerant outflow port (12), and a pressure response element (30) having a diaphragm (20) defining an upper surface of a valve chamber (15) and driving a valve body (17) and a lid-like member (35) defining a sealed pressure chamber (25) together with the diaphragm (20) and having a concave portion (36), an inert gas having a thermal expansion coefficient not more than a predetermined value is enclosed within said sealed pressure chamber (25), and an internal volume of the sealed pressure chamber is set such that the valve body (17) comes to a full-open state when that the pressure of the valve chamber (18) becomes a predetermined pressure or more higher than the pressure at which said valve body starts opening.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A pressure control valve comprising: a valve main body provided with a valve chamber having a valve seat portion which a rod-shaped valve body moves close to and away from, an inflow port, and an outflow port; and a pressure response element having a diaphragm defining an upper surface of said valve chamber and driving said valve body in an opening and closing direction, and a lid-like member defining a sealed pressure chamber in cooperation with said diaphragm, wherein an inert gas having a thermal expansion coefficient equal to or less than a predetermined value is enclosed within said sealed pressure chamber, and an internal volume of said sealed pressure chamber is set such that said valve body comes to a full-open state in the case that the pressure of said valve chamber becomes a predetermined pressure or more higher than the pressure at which said valve body starts opening; and wherein the internal volume of said sealed pressure chamber is set such that a ratio Vmin/Vmax becomes equal to or less than 0.7, where Vmax denotes an internal volume of said sealed pressure chamber at a time when said valve body is in a full-close state, and Vmin denotes an internal volume of said sealed pressure chamber at a time when said valve body is in a full-open state; and wherein a connection hole is formed in said diaphragm, and an upper end portion of said valve body is bonded to said diaphragm, said valve body being provided with a vertical hole with an upper surface opening, and said vertical hole with an upper surface opening being in alignment with said connection hole whereby said sealed pressure chamber and said vertical hole are in communication through said connection hole to expand said sealed pressure chamber.
2. A pressure control valve as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a single gas or a mixed gas is used as said inert gas.
3. A pressure control valve as claimed in claim 2 , wherein said single gas is nitrogen or helium.
Cooperative Patent Classification codes for this invention. Click any code to explore related patents in that topic.
March 30, 2009
November 13, 2012
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